The present invention relates to a telescopic baton, and more particularly to a telescopic baton having an easily mountable elastic multi-claw retaining means for effectively holding a fully telescoped shaft of the baton in place. The retaining means enables the telescopic baton to be assembled at reduced time and labor cost, and the shaft of the baton to be more stably held in a fully telescoped position.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional telescopic baton that mainly includes a hollow handle 1, a shaft 2 adapted to slide into the handle 1, and a fixing cap 3 screwed to a rear open end of the handle 1. An elastic plate is bent into an elastic closed loop 31 and then fixed with a rivet or screw 32 to a front end of the fixing cap 3. An inner diameter 21 of a rear end portion of the shaft 2 gradually increases rearward so that the shaft 2 has a flared inner wall 22 at the rear end portion. When the shaft 2 is fully telescoped into the handle 1, the flared inner wall 22 of the rear end of the shaft 2 would fitly engage with an outer periphery of the elastic closed loop 31 and be held in place in the handle 1. To extend the shaft 2 from the handle 1, simply hold and forcefully swing the handle 1. At this point, the shaft 2, due to its own weight, would disengage from the elastic closed loop 31 to slide out of the handle 1. The following are some disadvantages of the telescopic baton of FIG. 1:
1. Since the elastic plate is in the form of a closed loop, it is uneasy to align the rivet or screw 32 with a hole 33 provided at a front end surface of the fixing cap 3 to fix the elastic closed loop 31 to the fixing cap 3. More efforts and time are needed to complete the assembling of the elastic closed loop 31 to the fixing cap 3 to increase the manufacturing cost of the telescopic baton. PA1 2. The elastic closed loop 31 fixed to the fixing cap 3 projects forward from the fixing cap 3 and makes it more difficult to screw or loosen the fixing cap 3 onto or from the rear end of the handle 1. The elastic closed loop 31 is easily subject to deformation due to unexpected falling and/or collision with some other articles before the fixing cap 3 has been mounted into the rear end of the handle 1. And a deformed elastic closed loop 31 is not easily aligned with and extended into the rear end of the shaft 2 to firmly hold the shaft 2 in a telescoped position. PA1 3. The elastic closed loop 31 has a curved and smooth outer periphery and there are only two contact points between the elastic closed loop 31 and the inner diameter 21 of the shaft 2 when the shaft 2 engages with the loop 31, therefore, the shaft 2 could not be stably and firmly held in the handle 1 by the elastic closed loop 31. The shaft 2 in the telescoped position tends to unexpectedly slide out of the handle 1.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved telescopic baton having a multi-claw retaining means that can effectively hold a shaft of the baton in a fully telescoped position and be easily and safely mounted in an inner space defined by a fixing cap of the baton.